UAF students earn top award for mine design
October 6, 2014
University of Alaska Fairbanks engineering students have won a national mine team
design competition sponsored by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration
and the Pittsburg Coal Mining Institute of America.
Simon Ortega, Mindona Krzykowski, Tsakhiur Tsogtsaikhan and Ray Zimmer shared the
top award with West Virginia University students. They were notified in the first
week of October.
The students, working with industry partner Kinross, designed aspects of a gold mine
and determined its economic feasibility. The faculty advisor for the project was Rajive
Ganguli, professor of mining engineering.
One of the judges, an evaluator for the national science and engineering accrediting
organization ABET, has asked to use the project report an an example when he visits
universities for their reviews.
UAF mining engineering students have done well in international and national mine
design contests in recent years. In 2012, Ortega led the UAF team to the finals of
an international mine design contest. In 2013, the mining engineering capstone project
placed third.